Secret Circle Episode 10 – Darkness Recap

**** Please be aware that the following Article Contains Spoilers *****

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Its certainly been a long dark winter thanks to the 6 week hiatus during which the secret circle has not been on our screens – but finally the wait is over and the gang are back once again. The story arc so far has revealed that Cassie is descended from line of dark magic that is very strong, and very dangerous – so dangerous that even the witch hunters are afraid of her. The mid-season finale left us with the reveal that Cassie isn’t the only member of the circle to have dark magic, but this episode doesn’t attempt to deal with that little nugget of information at all. Instead we get an episode where the focus is all about Cassie Blake and how she and how other members of the circle handle the fact of her Darkness.

Jake left Chance Harbor with the other witch hunters at the end of the last episode, but at the very start of this one he is back – albeit as part of Cassie’s nightmares. After breaking into her house while she sleeps Cassie dreams herself using dark magic to push him away, constricting his throat until blood pours from his mouth. She awakes with a start and is alarmed by the content of the dream. The following morning Adam come calling, concerned that he hasn’t seen her for a couple of days. He knows that something is wrong and it doesn’t take too much effort for him to prise the truth out of Cassie. She tells him about her dark magic, and interestingly he suggests that she read Diana’s book of shadows, since it contains a lot about dark magic and demons.

We are introduced to the first of this weeks guest characters when Diana’s Grandma Kate (Stepfanie Kramer) comes to visit, concerned for her grandaughter since her split with Adam. Kate is an elder and as with Henry before her she is suspicious of the events unfolding in Chance Harbor. Alarm bells sound almost immediately as she learns that her son, Charles, is now in a ‘relationship’ with Dawn Chamberlain. This doesn’t ring true with Kate and the first opportunity she gets she confronts Dawn about it, telling her she she is suspicious of her motives. Poor Dawn, she’s not very popular with any of the elders it would seem…..

The sub-plot this week sees Faye and Melissa trying to get their individual magic back. After tearing a page from Cassie’s book of shadows, Faye thinks she has found a piece of Voodoo magic that can restore their powers. After some googling they find a practioner of the Voodoo arts living in nice suburb not far from Chance Harbor(??) and quickly fire off an email enquiring about a consultation. A quick piece of mumbo jumbo later and Lee LaBeque (friday night lights, Grey Damon) proclaims the spell complete and by the morning, Faye should have her powers back (She hasnt of course which annoy her a wee bit).

Adam meanwhile is researching dark magic, and is caught out by Diana when she sees what he is reading on his laptop. Putting 2 and 2 together she works out that Adam is researching dark magic for Cassie and wants to know why. Despite having promised Cassie that he wouldnt tell the others he has no choice but to tell Diana (he is used to sharing everything with her after all), but Cassie catches him spilling the beans and is not impressed at all – so much so that she becomes consumed with rage and the dark magic manifests in the same spell she dreamed about using on Jake at the start of the episode. Adams throat starts to constrict and he can’t breathe. She stops short of killing him, but she rushes away distressed by her lack of control.
After the incident with Adam, Cassie decided she needs some guidance on the whole dark magic thing and who better than Jake to teach her. After all he’s not all bad, witch hunter he may be but in the end he did save her life. Diana walks in on her setting up an Attraction spell which she hopes will bring Jake back to town.

Charles and Dawn meanwhile meet to discuss what to do about the Kate situation. Its obvious that Dawn wants a permanent solution, and Charles is dismayed that she would entertain the notion that he might be a party to killing his own mother. He dismisses Dawn telling her that he will deal with Kate himself. Not put off however Dawn invites herself for dinner that same nght, bringing with her a bottle of wine as a peace offering. Cassie is there too as Diana’s guest. Charles is convinced that Dawn is up to something, even going so far as to stop his mother drinking the wine Dawn brought thinking it might be poisoned. We don’t know if it is, since Charles pours it down the sink, but Dawn is aghast at the suggestion – saying she merely wants to keep and eye on Kate and the best way to do that is to get close to her.

While she is sleeping over at Diana’s, Kate tells Cassie that she can see that she has Dark Magic in her – an alarming revelation for Cassie since elders are not supposed to know the circle is practising magic. However Kate doesnt mention Diana or the other members of the circle, but she does say that she knows a spell she to draw the dark magic out of Cassie – which is just what Cassie wants to hear. Unfortunately, despite Diana’s complete trust in her Grandma, Kate is quite barmy.

Cassie agrees to meet Kate in the middle of the woods after darkness where Kate tells her she will perform a ritual to draw the dark magic from her. As soon as she sees the setting for the ritual Cassie is suspicious. The altar is a long box with a cloth draped over it. The cloth has a symbol painted on it. Kate draws a knife and cuts into the palm of Cassie’s hand, drawing blood. Kate instructs her to place her hand on the symbol on the cloth, which Cassie does as the wind starts to whip up around them with Kate uttering an incantation. Next the cloth is removed and the altar is revealed as a box which Cassie must open. Inside she finds a branch of an elderberry tree. She hands it to Kate who holds it above her head. Still casting a spell she breaks the branch in half and Cassie collapses to the ground, unconscious.

Back home Diana finds some mandrake root in amongst her grandmas possessions and she is suddenly alarmed enough to wonder exactly what it is her grandma has planned for Cassie (mandrake root is the witch hunters weapon of choice for killing witches after all). She hurries over to tell Adam and the pair of them go looking for Cassie. Too late however because Kate has buried Cassie under the ground inside the box/altar. The cheeky witch doesnt have a spell to draw out dark magic after all, but she does have a spell to kill Cassie – which in Kate’s mind is the safest way to stop the evil inside her. Cassie starts to panic inside the box, but after a while she realises that the only way she is getting out alive is if she can draw on the power that everyone is so afraid of. Calming herself down she concentrates hard then utters the classic ancient incantation ‘get me out of here’ (note to TSC writers, really need to work on the magic words). With sudden burst of energy the box is propelled upwards and out of the ground. Cassie is safe, just in time for Adam and Diana to turn up and rescue her.

Back at Diana’s house Kate has decided to get the hell out of dodge. She’s packing her things when Charles walks in and asks her whats up. Crumbling under such harsh intergoation Kate admits she just tried to kill Cassie, but Cassie’s magic being more powerful than her own meant that she survived. With the look of a zealot Kate tells Charles that the only way for her to find out how powerful Cassie is was to place her inches from death. Cassie is the one they have been looking for, strong enough to tip the balance between good and evil.

The end of the episode sees Diana and Cassie talking about the events of the night. By the time they returned home Kate was long gone, and Diana apologises to Cassie for telling her to trust in her Grandmother. Cassie talks about her feelings while imprisoned by Kate, fear mostly, but at the end of it when she used her own magic to escape she confesses to enjoying the feeling of power it brought her. The final words of the episde are from Diana: “Just how powerful are you” she asks. The camera pans outside and there looking up at the window is Jake, returned to Chance harbor – looks like Cassie’s attraction spell worked better than she could have hoped…..